It's All About Balance

The man has been away on a Hunting Trip in Canada, so I havent been cooking too much with just me and the kids around. Before he left, his mother gave me a sack full of eggplants fresh from her garden (she's the sweetest lady EVER). They've been sitting on my island for a week while I figure out what to do with them....

Yesterday it hit me....I'll do sort of a mock eggplant parmesan type dish. The kicker: 2 picky kids with totally different tastes.

HMMMM......

I go home before getting the kids from daycare, and I peel and dice the eggplant. The kids have seen the eggplant sitting around all week, and they were intrigued, not knowing I usually sneak it in their food anyway. Into a bowl it goes. Now onto the cheesey goodness. The big girl (6) is a cheese fanatic. She loves to take cheese cubes to school in her lunch. Ok...cubed eggplant, cubed cheese, why not? Tossed 2 handfuls of colby jack cubes in. One kid down, the pickiest one to go....and of course he's not a huge fan of cheese. What is he a huge fan of? Tomatoes. Well that's easy....1 large can of petite diced tomatoes....into the bowl. Now add a little garlic/onion/salt/italian seasoning. It's looking good, but you cant stick something like that in the oven without topping it with more cheese.. (isnt there a law or something about that?! There should be).....anyway...Topped it with a cup of Five Cheese Italian Blend, and into the oven it goes. Then I start thinking....hmm...this is all veggie. How is this going to keep us full? Should I boil some pasta? (Tummy says Yes, Diet says No). OOOOH...I've got it....bread crumbs. OF course bread crumbs....the one thing I dont keep on hand...but luckily I did have some french bread that was a few days (ok more like a week or so) old. I tossed it in with the eggplant concoction to "toast" so I could crumble it, then I tossed it with garlic and grated parmesan cheese. After the first layer of cheese had melted, I topped it with the bread crumb mixture, then added a layer of shredded parmesan cheese to the top. Stuck it back in the oven to broil, and voila...

(by no means am I a professional photographer, nor do I want/care to be...)

Now the taste test.... DELISH! Both kids picked at it at first, one eating the cheese and one eating the tomatoes, but then when I forced them to try the eggplant, they were impressed. Pretty excited about this meal. It's healthy, plus, if I want, I can pour it over pasta. For my picky kids, it's all about balance...incorporating a little bit of something everyone likes.